I got my license at the beginning of the year, and would like to set up a shack for use at home instead of a HT.

I will (hopefully) be attaching a tri-band (50/144/430MHz) antenna to the house, and run a feeder into my room.

Is there a way to do this without causing much damage to the house?Drilling holes to fit the Antenna is probably necessary, but how do I get the feeder coax into my room, without drilling through walls?

I personally prefer drilling through walls, as it's the neatest installation possible. However, another popular way to route a transmission line into the operating "shack" without drilling through walls is to drill through a piece of lumber (wood), like a common 2"x4" (which actually measure 38mm x 89mm here) cut to length so it's as long as your window is wide, for the coaxial cable (common RG213 type coax is .405", or 10.3mm diameter). Then, place the lumber in the window opening, close the window on the lumber, and screw in a small L-bracket between the permanently closed window and the sliding window's frames, to "lock" the window so possible intruders cannot force it open.

Of course, if you're in a place where nobody could possibly climb through your window, anyway, then you don't need the "lock" mechanism. Just close the window.

This way, the hole drilled is in a piece of throw-away lumber and not through your wall.

Antennas often can be rooftop mounted without drilling holes, if you have a sturdy chimney for support (stainless steel straps are commonly used to embrace the chimney and support masts for antennas). For smaller, lighter antennas, even roof vent pipes can often be used safely.

What I did was to replace a basement (which floor my shack is on) casement window with a piece of thick sheet metal. On that I mounted Polyphasers. Feedline from radios goes to the inside side of the Polyphaser and outside the feedline goes to the antenna. The piece of sheet metal is grounded to a couple of 8 foot ground rods by some really thick wire. Seems to work well.

Regarding window pane replacement: Not really. I don't like working with glass (bad experience as a kid, where I almost sliced a finger off!), so personally I'd stay clear of that one.

What I was suggesting is to simply "open" the window a bit, place the lumber in the opening, and then close the window on the wood. With some window designs, this may not work well; however with the most common U.S. window designs, which are either vertical or horizontal sliding, it works just fine. The little angle bracket I recommended screwing into the window frames after the window is "closed" on the wood is just a way to lock the window and keep out potential bad guys.

If you are putting the antenna on your roof and your shack is on the top floor, you should bring the wire in through the roof over hang. Then on the inside interior wall find the top plate in the attic and drill thru the center of it and drop your wire in the wall cavity and cut a nice hole at the same height as the room plugs and install plate. This hole can also be used for telephone,cable or blanked off. 73 Bill

I agree with the above post. You need to bing yor wire in through the overhang into your attic. Then you can drill through the top plate of a wall. When you do this use a drill bit with a fish tape built in. you can buy these at lowes,home depot, ect. basically it is a 4'-6' foot flexable drill bit that you can drill from the wall side up to your attic. this is the meathod that I used. The only problem with this is you antenna port in your wall ends up being about 4' off the floor insted of near the baseboard. Good LuckKF4UVG

Well there are many ways to route the cable in to the house, (it is a house right?)1) "the method you don't like" drill a hole to fit the cable strait through the MORTAR "not the brick, that will cause a big problem", into the house and cut out a box in the drywall and put on a face plate like the ones used for the phone jack.

2)if you have a Peer and Beam foundation "you house will be raised up off the ground like a mobile home" then it is simple, most have some type of "skirting" on them and you just need to go through that and you can come up through the floor near the edge of the wall. if this is the case MAKE shure you drill the hole going into the room, from INSIDE the house, or you might have a hole in the middle of the room. Just CHECK BELOW first you would hate to drill into a water line or sewer line, or worse a gas line.

3)as said previously you can come in from the over hang on the roof and in to the attic "if you have one" and down a wall. but this only really works with fairly flexable coax. the tool mentioned earlier is usually call a "deversa bit" don't know if its spelled right, its late. and you want to use that coming from the attic down, they are ment to be used in tight spaces where you cant get a drill and a agur bit in the space you have, "such as on a out side wall where the roof gives you only a few inches of clearance." the only problem with this method is you dont want to fall through the ceiling!

4) through the window. it works and is easy but has been known to leak air and water if not sealed up good.

which ever you decide to do Be shure to leave your self enough extra cable to be able to re do it if you dont like the way it turns out.

write back and give us some more details and we will try and help you some more.

1)is it a HOUSE?2) what size cable?3) is the house on a foundation, or peer and beam?4) how many cables do you plan on running? now and future.5) are you on the ground floor, or second story?any thing you can come up with will help.6) do you rent and if so what will they let you do.

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